QMUL researchers among winners announced for £2m programme to commercialise life sciences discoveries
Congratulations to Dr Rosalind Hannen and Professor Kenny Linton who have been successful in securing an award from MedCity’s new ‘Collaborate to Innovate’ scheme. The £2m ‘Collaborate to Innovate programme, led by King’s College London and part-funded by ERDF and HEFCE, is connecting 16 life sciences SMEs with leading academics to address a specific challenge related to their product or service.
Over 70 companies applied to the programme, and were matched with suitable academic partners to develop six to 12-month collaborative proposals worth up to £100,000. A panel of academics and industry representatives selected the winning projects, based on technological potential, R&D challenges, commercial potential, and impact.
Sarah Haywood, CEO of MedCity said:
“London and the South East has a strong life sciences ecosystem of innovative companies developing the next generation of therapeutic and healthcare products. We have everything from new drugs, development of healthcare services based on AI and VR technologies, new devices and smartphones used to help people manage their care.
Sometimes you just need a helping hand with finding a key piece of the puzzle, to get the idea from mind to market. I’m excited that we have been able to match 16 ground-breaking SMEs with academics from our leading universities to develop their innovations and make them commercially viable.”
QMUL’s Business Development team provided great support to the Collaborate to Innovate programme, working closely with the MedCity team to link up companies with academic research partners and develop project proposals.
Fourth State Medicine Ltd and QMUL
4SM aims to ‘bring space age technology to the medical sector’ and has developed innovative plasma technology to promote healthy wound healing. 4SM will be working with Dr Rosalind Hannen to validate the product and demonstrate its effectiveness for diabetic patients. Dr Hannen’s proposal with Fourth State Medicine was the most highly ranked by the review panel.
www.fourthstatemedicine.co.uk
Selcia Ltd and QMUL
Selcia is a drug discovery company that has access to a 1000 compound cyclosporin-derivative library. Through collaboration with Professor Kenneth Linton they will work on screening the library to identify potential novel treatments for cholestatic liver disease.
http://www.selcia.com/